The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at approximately rank 1,223,996) on the hiscores for Mining is level 15. As of 16 August 2018, there are 132,412 current members that have achieved level 99 in Mining. There are 8,463 current members that have achieved level 120 in Mining.

How to mine

To mine, players need a pickaxe (the better the pickaxe and Mining level the quicker it is to mine the ores) that they have the required Mining level to mine with. Players should then choose where to mine, taking into consideration the proximity to a bank, and what ores are available. Players only need to left-click once on any rock containing ore to mine it (provided they have the level needed for that ore type). The obtained ores, gems, and essence can then be sold for profit, or used by the player for the Smithing, Crafting and Runecrafting skills.

Players used to be able to discover which ore was in a rock by right-clicking and selecting Prospect (with or without a pickaxe) which would require them to wait a few seconds before learning which ore the rock contained. However, most types of ores can now be determined by simply examining the rock. Experienced miners did not need to prospect every rock, as they recognised the colour of the rock and knew the ore it contained. However, an update made it so that simply hovering one's cursor over the rock would tell the player what ore was to be found in it, in the upper-left corner (though some rocks, like certain mineral veins, still have the "Prospect" option).

Pickaxes

The pickaxes used in mining can be equipped like a weapon, giving players one more space in their inventory. A player's Mining level determines the type of pickaxe they can mine with, while their Attack level determines whether they can wield it. As with all metal weapons, the better the pickaxe, the more effective it is as a tool and as a weapon. Better pickaxes both mine the rocks more frequently and offer a better chance to obtain the ore per mining attempt. Pickaxes are sold by Nurmof in the Dwarven Mine, Tati in Keldagrim, Bob in Lumbridge (bronze only), or at the Grand Exchange. Pickaxes can be forged at the appropriate Smithing level for players who have completed the Perils of Ice Mountain quest. Pickaxes may also be stored in the tool belt to save inventory space.

Created on an anvil with a blast fusion hammer, a normal or augmented crystal pickaxe and a normal or augmented imcando pickaxe.

Attack is only required to wield, not mine. The pickaxe may be wielded, placed in the inventory, or placed in the tool belt to mine.

Mineable items

Ores are obtained from the different rocks that are found in mines. On the minimap, mines are labelled with a grey pickaxe. The colour of a rock's vein corresponds to the ore's colour, so a black vein will yield coal, a dark blue vein will yield mithril ore, and so forth. Players used to be able to identify which kind of ore a rock is composed of via prospecting. However, due to an update, players can now examine the rock to find the ore type and the "prospect" option has been removed.

When a player clicks on a rock, they will hit it with their pickaxe and attempt to extract the ore. The higher level the rock (e.g., adamantite and runite), the longer the mining procedure will take, requiring the player to have some degree of patience.

After the ore has been mined, the rock will no longer have a visible vein of colour for a while. Eventually, another ore will respawn and the rock will regain its vein of colour. Players can only mine a rock when ore is available. Ore respawn times differ with the level requirement of the rock and the amount of people on the server (e.g., runite rocks can take up to 25 minutes to respawn, while iron rocks take about 10 seconds). Rune essence is an exception to this as there is no respawn time and players can mine continuously.

Players can continuously mine multiple pieces of coal and gold ore in the Living Rock Caverns until the concentrated coal/gold rock collapses. Sometimes, players will mine two ores at once, gaining experience for both ores. While wearing Varrock armour, players may find that they can mine three ores at once in the cavern. Mining coal in the Living Rock Caverns requires level 77 Mining, while mining gold there requires level 80 Mining. Beware of aggressive, ranged/melee level 92 creatures that protect the rocks. Using world 84 can protect individuals from the rock creatures as there is a high volume of players in this world.

To mine rune essence, players will need to complete the Rune Mysteries quest. It is used in Runecrafting. Rune essence does not have a respawn time, allowing a player to click once on the rock and wait until his/her inventory is full.

To mine pure essence, players will need to complete the Rune Mysteries quest. It is used in Runecrafting. Pure essence does not have a respawn time, allowing a player to click once on the rock and wait until his/her inventory is full.

Available at the quarry south of the Bandit Camp (Kharidian Desert). Used in Enakhra's Lament quest. When mined, it shows up in your inventory as a 1, 2, 5, or 10 kg block. (If calculating yourself, divide by 60 as the exp per rock is over 60. To be more exact divide by 62 as the exp per rock is about 62.4702(tested by many trials))

Gem rocks are only available to members who have level 75 Dungeoneering (Al Kharid hidden mine) or have completed the Shilo Village quest or Lunar Diplomacy quest; there are gem rocks in the lunar mine as well as in Shilo Village. Gems can also be found randomly during the Tai Bwo Wannai Cleanup minigame, by mining rocks or from various quests and rewards. Mining a gem rock gives the player a random gem ranging from opal to diamond (meaning no dragonstone or onyx), which can be used in Crafting or Fletching. Although the type of gem received is random, you are much more likely to receive a low level gem. An experienced miner with a high level pickaxe can make up to 300k an hour mining these rocks when dropping lower level gems from their inventory.

Living minerals are used as bait with a fishing rod to fish for rocktail. Rocktail fishing spots are only found in the Living Rock Caverns. The minerals are only found by mining the remains of living rock creatures found in the caverns.

Players can use the Smithing skill to smelt a runite ore with eight coal to make a rune bar. For non members there are only five rocks: two located in the deep Wilderness and three in the resource dungeon in the Mining Guild (with 45 Dungeoneering). As a member, there are many safer areas in which you can mine runite, but no more than three rocks in one place.

Members only. Accessible after the Between a Rock...quest. Contains lots of gold veins, and a local dwarf to transport the gold ores to the bank (for a small fee of gold ores). Alternately, the bank is a 30 sec longer trip from the local boat man

Members only. Coal trucks can hold up to 120 coal. You can hold up to 140 coal if the easy Seers' Village Tasks are completed, 168 if the medium tasks are completed, and 196 if the hard tasks are completed. If the elite tasks are completed, 200 coal in the trucks will go directly to your bank.

Members only. Accessible during and after the Lost Tribequest. Is a good place to power-mine without losing a lot of money, as Mistag (at the southern end of the mine) will buy your iron and silver ores. Requires a light source.

Scorpions and King Scorpions at the south-eastern section. These numbers include the mining ores in the Resource Dungeon, which requires 15 dungeoneering level to enter. Nurmof at the east of the mine can repair broken pickaxes.The resource dungeon has also a deposit box for fast banking.

Shooting Stars

Shooting Stars is a repeatable Distraction and Diversion. They can be found via a telescope in a player-owned house. They fall in waves every 2 hours on all free-to-play and members worlds and will land around 2–15 minutes after each other. The stars can be from size 1 (10 Mining required) up to size 9 (90 Mining required). Bigger stars give more stardust in total, but are much harder to mine. There are nine areas in RuneScape where shooting stars will land at. You can learn more about the specific locations in the Distractions and Diversions guide. If you reach your limit of 200 stardust, you can still carry on mining the star for Mining experience. Mining stars give players stardust. 200 stardust may be exchanged for:

Wilderness Warbands

Wilderness Warbands is a members-only Distraction and Diversion where the player or a group of players attempt to loot supplies and trade it in for experience. One of the possible loots are Mining supplies. Players can loot up to a maximum of 25 supplies per camp or 75 supplies daily. Turning the supplies to Quercus will give players experience based on how many supplies they have looted and what their current level is.

Random events

Gems

When mining your player may find a gem in the rock. A player's chances of finding gems are increased when wearing a chargedamulet of glory or ring of wealth. If wearing both, the effects double. There also seems to be a positive correlation between a player's Mining level and the frequency of gems they receive while mining. In other words, the higher levelled the ore, the more likely it is to receive gems while mining it. There is also an extremely small chance of finding more than one gem in a rock (this happens quite often when mining a Shooting Star). If your inventory is full you are still able to find gems, however the gem will be dropped and you will receive the message "You do not have enough space in your inventory, so you drop the gem on the floor.".

Rock Golem (discontinued)

While mining, a Rock Golem could appear and begin attacking the player.

The combat level of the golem depended on the player's combat level, and it would always be higher than the player's. The Rock Golem's combat level varied from level 14 to 159. Players may have either attempted to kill it, or run away. The Rock Golem also had a ranged attack. If a player killed the golem, it would drop ores, dwarven stouts, pickaxes, uncut gems, or nothing.

Rock Golems were especially vulnerable to pickaxes.

Since the random event update in 25 February2009, Rock Golems cannot be found with a random event - though, they are in the enchanted valley with the rest of the discontinued random creatures.

Pickaxe head (discontinued)

While mining, the player's pickaxe head may have flown off. The head landed somewhere nearby, usually 3 to 10 squares away. When this occurred, the player had to find the pickaxe head quickly before it disappeared or before someone else saw and grabbed it (and some would try to extort money from the player to return the pickaxe head). Once retrieved, the player could use the pickaxe head on the handle to put the pickaxe back together.

Also from the update of 25 February 2009, this random event has been discontinued. Any pickaxe heads in a player's inventory or bank were transformed back into a full pickaxe. Handles were removed from the game.

Tips

Animation when mining

It should be noted that when mining a player's animation will never be stopped unless they log out, die, or left-click somewhere else or eat/drink anything or drop something. So, with this in mind, players could, in theory, mine continuously until the ore runs out. One example of this is when players are attacked, their mining animation may be delayed or seem as if it has been stopped, but in reality they are actually still mining.

Players could also transfer to another ore if they feel that the ore they are mining is taking too long. The animation will transfer and you might find mining faster this way.

Wear Varrock armour and an amulet of glory

Among other benefits, Varrock armour (obtained from completing the different levels of difficulty of the Varrock Tasks) offers a chance of obtaining two ores at the same time from one rock. The player will get experience for both ores. As Varrock armour is upgraded upon completing the tasks, this unique effect will be available for rocks up to adamantite. Wearing an amulet of glory or a tier 2 (or higher) luck enhancer will also increase the chance of obtaining gems.

Obsidian golems, summoned at level 73 in Summoning, will give the player's Mining an invisible boost of 7 levels.

Lava titans summoned at level 83 in Summoning will give the player's Mining an invisible boost of 10 levels.

Star sprites from a Shooting Star will reward you with being able to mine 2 ores at once (25% chance), lasting for the amount of stardust you collected (200 stardust equals a 15-minute boost); it does work on runite.

A stoneberry can be used to temporarily boost mining by 2 levels, but will also reduce your defence level by 1. These cannot stack.

Helpful items

Golden mining suit pieces increase Mining experience by 6% when you have the entire outfit set equipped. It gives 1% extra experience per item of the set worn and an additional 1% as a full set bonus.

Varrock armour(1) (2) (3) (4) gives you a chance of doubling the ore you receive (up to and including adamantite at 3), stacks with the effect of shooting stars, and increases Mining experience by 1% at all levels.

Gem-finding scrimshaw(Superior) will give a chance to receive more uncut diamonds from rocks and even chances for uncut dragonstones and uncut onyxes. Higher rocks will give a chance for better gems and a better chance for gems in general.

Special mining areas

Coal truck mining site - The coal trucks are located west from Seers' Village and north from Ardougne. There are 18 coal rocks and handy carts for storing coal in. The carts can store 120 at a time and it is also recommended to take 28 coal when leaving as well. There is a quick way or a slow way to get to and from the coal trucks.

Quick Way: With 20 Agility go across the log that is on the east side of the coal trucks. The Camelot Teleport spell can also be used for quick access to the Seers' bank

Slow Way: To walk all the way around the lake, past the Fishing Guild, to Seers' Village.

Once in Seers' Village go north-west from Seers' Village bank and there are more coal trucks in the shed. Remove all the coal and bank, repeating the process until all the ore has been taken.

After completing the Seers' Village Tasks the coal trucks can hold up to a max of 196 coal before having to be emptied.

Mining Guild - In the Mining Guild there are 37 coal and 5 mithril rocks. It is close to a bank (just climb the ladders to the west and head north). Level 60 Mining is required to enter (level 59 miners can achieve this by drinking a dwarven stout just before entering the guild). There is one especially efficient place to mine, in the south-east corner, where there are 6 coal in very close proximity. Mining mithril is not recommended in the guild unless there is no-one else at the rocks. An anvil is available outside of the guild in the north end of the mines. The anvil, in combination with the Superheat Item spell, allows the player to smith the ores they mine. The smithed items can be turned into coins with the High Level Alchemy spell or sold at the nearby shop avoiding trips to the bank.

You can save a couple of seconds while banking using the skills necklace's Mining Guild teleport, which teleports you directly in front of the stairs leading down to the mining area.

Crafting Guild - The Crafting Guild is the best place in free play to mine gold, silver, and clay. 40 Crafting is required to enter. Members can easily teleport there by use of a skills necklace or the balloon transport system. Gold ore is very valuable and in high demand by members using the goldsmith gauntlets for quick Smithing experience, so free players hoping to make money mining would benefit greatly by training their Crafting level to 40.

Arzinian Mine - After completing the Between a Rock... quest, members can access the largest gold mine in the game, with 146 gold rocks. Players must talk to Dondakan while wearing a gold helmet in order to access it. To leave the mine, simply remove the helmet or log off and log in again. The mine is very far from a bank; however, a short ways away, there is a dwarf who will deliver Gold ore to the bank for you in exchange for a 20% cut of the profits, rounded up. The fee is halved if the player is wearing a ring of charos (a).

Shooting Stars - A shooting star can be seen through a telescope in a player-owned house every two hours. Details will be given, such as the location of impact site and time remaining until impact. Once a shooting star has crashed onto Gielinor, a player may search it out and mine it. Mining the star will give the player stardust, which can be exchanged for some rewards from a star sprite at the middle of the star, after the star has been fully mined. The sprite will also give the player an ability to mine more than one ore per rock (for a limited amount of time). Only 200 stardust pieces can be mined from the star. After that, the player can continue to mine the star and get experience (amount of experience depends on the level of star, or the amount of outer shell of the star still intact). This can be helpful to assist people in breaking the star apart so they can get their reward. Also, a star sprite can only reward a player once per day. It is recommended that the player exchanges a full 200 stardust pieces, for a larger reward.

Dwarven Mine resource dungeon - Requires level 15 Dungeoneering to enter, but contains 3 silver rocks, 13 coal rocks and 6 mithril rocks, along with a bank deposit box. This mining location is by far the closest location to a bank/deposit box in RuneScape, and therefore it is a very favourable place to mine, especially in free to play servers.

Lava Flow Mine - After completing the King of the Dwarves quest, players unlock a new area to mine with a chance to receive the golden mining suit. There are a number of distractions at the mine which are pretty much just random events. To successfully achieve the best experience, you must make sure you are mining at the segment with a 50% lava flow which can be checked by clicking the gauges. No ore is produced here.

Skilling pet

Like all skills, there is a skilling pet obtainable from training this skill. The pet for the Mining skill is called Rocky.

Trivia

The oldmining level-up jingle

On 3 July2007, the mining animation was significantly changed. The change initially irked some players, likely because they had become accustomed to the very steady pace and sound of the prior animation. Some players believe this "nerfed" mining as the animation seems longer thus apparently increasing the time a rock is hit before an ore is yielded.

Early in RS classic it was possible to mine gems from rocks that you did not have the proper level to normally mine ore. This allowed a player to rapidly click on the rock and obtain gems without actually mining it. This exploit was swiftly fixed.